Chicago Bears: Montgomery Out For A Month With Knee Sprain

We now know the severity of David Montgomery‘s knee injury. He has a sprain and will be out for 4-5 weeks. The team made a trade as a result.

The one thing that put a downer on the Chicago Bears‘ victory over the Detroit Lions in Week 4 was David Montgomery’s knee injury. In the middle of the fourth quarter, he made a five-yard run and grabbed his knee in apparently great pain.

Fans thought the worst looking at Montgomery roll around in pain. At first glance, it looked like a very serious injury, perhaps an ACL tear. That would end his season. However, he did walk off the field under his own power so there was hope. Later, some players noted that they saw Montgomery walk around okay.

Well, now we know the extent of Montgomery’s injury. While it wasn’t an ACL or MCL tear, he did suffer a pretty severe sprain. That sprain will keep him out for 4-5 weeks.

The injury makes things difficult for the Bears’ plans. Starting this week against the Las Vegas Raiders, the Bears go into a brutal stretch of games. They also face the Green Bay Packers, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Arizona Cardinals, and the San Francisco 49ers.

It is crucial for the Bears’ running game to perform well for them to win any of these games. As we saw last week, with the running backs doing well, the defense has to adjust. Once they do that, the quarterback has opportunities to make plays down the field. That’s exactly what Justin Fields did against the Lions. While he didn’t have any touchdown passes, he made big completions deep downfield that helped lead to every score they made.

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Next man up for the running backs

Now, it’s up to Damien Williams to step up as the lead back. This is exactly why the Bears signed him. They felt he gave the Bears a great backup who could give Montgomery some rest during games. Additionally, they felt he could step in if Montgomery suffered an injury. Now we get to see if he does that.

Williams dealt with an injury himself. Later in that tough fourth quarter, he suffered a quad injury and couldn’t go on. His injury isn’t too serious and isn’t expected to miss any time, however.

That also means that rookie Khalil Herbert gets to step up as well. He’ll be used as the main backup now. If the injury to Williams keeps limits his snaps, Herbert will take the workload. He’s already made an impression on the coaching staff since training camp so let’s see if he continues that trend.

Also, the Bears went out and traded for Miami Dolphins wide receiver Jakeem Grant. He is a return specialist so he’ll do that now that Herbert is needed more in the backfield. He’ll likely return kickoffs and help out with punt returns. The Bears have Nsimba Webster on punt returns but so far he’s been timid in that role. He seems indecisive and returned only four punts for 13 yards.

That needs to improve and Grant should help.

Now we’ll see how the Chicago Bears’ backfield fares in Montgomery’s absence. It’ll be tough to replace him, but if Williams and Herbert can help keep the running game’s continuity, it will be a big lift for the Chicago Bears offense.